That was the situation last night, the Spurs were down by 9 pts. thanks to a good run by the bench and some turnovers by OKC. The Spurs starters had been sitting on the bench because we were down by 18. The Thunder kept their first team on the floor on the 4th quarter to secure the lead.
Now, at this point the Spurs have their starters rested and OK has been playing theirs, granted it is the first game of a back to back, but if you were the coach would you take a time out and put all your starters back in with 5 minutes to make up a 9 point deficit against the team that took you out of the playoffs last year?

Uwe Blab

12-17-12 11:04 PM

Knowing that we don't have all our horses, I leave the bench in. The chances if winning this game were slim, just be happy you were able to hang without 2 of your best players.

spurscrazed

12-17-12 11:33 PM

Yeah if Spurs start slow and found themselves catching up and then going into a hole, the best thing to do when on the road on a B2B is to let the bench continue.

That game was lost in the beg of the 3rd quarter.

Good call Pop!!!! Pop called it right in my honest opinion.

spursfan9

12-17-12 11:54 PM

resting the starters when it gets real, they will take that same experience into the playoffs, and lose when the going gets tough against these young teams...

the spurs might have the 'experience',,,, but they always play the season and sit out the big games in the past couple years. then in the playoffs they play these same situation but they cant pull it out. let them play the tough games against our real competition. u wanna rest, play the bench against the bobcats, but dont sit them out when the going gets tough.

spurscrazed

12-18-12 12:03 AM

Right with you sf9.

This situation tonight was because Pop had a B2B game situation!!!!!

Pop should not do that again if it is a game that Spurs would have a day rest after that.

The goal here is to save the starters from exhaustion and move on because the next B2B game if Pop did not play starters he will be fined remember?!!!

The good news is that Spurs will not have a B2B until six more games on Dec 30 @ Dallas and Dec 31 at Home vs. Brooklyn!!!!! :D